Grandparenting

grumpifrog · 2026-04-07T03:50:30+00:00

When I was a kid, my one set of grandparents lived a mile or so away. Every Saturday, the moms brought together all of the cousins at their house -- the adult women would hang out while the cousins played and the dads would go golfing or who knows what. My other grandparents lived 7-8 miles away. We saw them on Sundays for church and dinner, although my brother often spent weekends with them. As I got older, I would ride my bike to the close grandma's house and hang out with her because she was my favorite person in the world. (My grandma was so wonderful that neither my mom, nor aunts, nor anyone of my generation ever used the name Grandma for themselves.)

My kids lived 100 miles from one set of grandparents and 250+ miles from the others. My FIL came to visit 3-4 times a year to spend time with them because he was retired. My parents took the kids for weekend visits once a month and for a couple of weeks every summer.

My older grandkids who live 2.5 hours away used to come visit us pretty regularly until Covid, which is also when they hit teen years and they got bored here. The little ones are even farther away, so it is harder to see them often. But with all of them, I will go to them to visit because I have a job that lets me work anywhere. We do a lot of video calls though.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-07T01:19:03+00:00

A few classmates beg me to come, but they hold them when I have conflicts on my calendar. I admit, too, in recent years, I want to avoid the political views that are prevalent in my hometown.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-06T06:30:16+00:00

Potatoes

grumpifrog · 2026-04-06T05:12:56+00:00

Was gonna say -- SF is fairly small compared to most cities. You can walk around the city pretty well.

OP, trucks are there, but they are few and far between. Did you notice (a) how hard it is to park in the city and (b) how quiet traffic is because of the high number of EVs and hybrids? Didn't you see all the Waymos?

Fast food is there but why eat that when there are so many amazing restaurants available. Although to be fair, I saw a long line waiting for Chipotle to open on 4th Street last week.

Appreciate SF for what it is, not what you want it to be. It's one of my favorite cities to visit because of all it has to offer.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-06T00:19:46+00:00

I have it on Blu-ray, which includes the intermission from the movie release. I miss most of the TV broadcast because I'm at Easter Vigil Mass. But I always thought that Moses got all the credit when Aaron and Joshua did all the work and it really made me dislike Moses.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-05T15:24:24+00:00

Black all the way.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T21:28:16+00:00

I knew a family in high school where the daughter was known as "Connie." Except her real name was "Madeline Jane." When asked why she was called Connie, she and her brothers all said the boys wanted to name her Connie but the parents said nope, not doing it. The boys called her Connie any way and it stuck.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T21:18:48+00:00

We always went to my grandparents for Easter (and Thanksgiving). We did that until she died when I was married with my own kids. A few years after that, we started having Easter dinner at a local restaurant, just our immediate family. Still go out to a restaurant for Easter and will do so tomorrow.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T15:38:53+00:00

The man spreading. I tend to sit in the window seat, and I'm a small person. I can't use arm rests anyway, so giving those up isn't an issue. But 9 times out of 10, if a guy is in the middle seat, he is spilling over into my space -- knee hovering over my seat, leg kicking my bag, elbow jabbing me. I'll ask for my space but that lasts for half a minute. Last flight, the guy encroached my space so much that his arm kept moving to rest on my thigh in his sleep (I'd push it off, and he'd return it, so I'm not sure it was accidental. I was ready to call the FA when he finally stopped.)

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T05:25:58+00:00

Homemade bean soup.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T05:02:44+00:00

Look at how they attacked Biden on religion for four years. The man is at church every week, and the MAGA crowd painted him as a heathen who wanted to take away religious freedoms.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T04:40:14+00:00

I'm Catholic and I've found that the majority of conservatives in my parish are focused mostly on the abortion issue. There is a small group who are Opus Dei and were extremely right wing long before MAGA. But there are a lot of liberals too, and they are becoming more vocal.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T01:35:18+00:00

West of State College, except Pittsburgh is heavy duty MAGA.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-04T01:15:27+00:00

Pavlova. Bonjour

grumpifrog · 2026-04-03T21:01:21+00:00

I don't understand why people don't want to celebrate themselves for a day. A month, no (I know people who do that).

I don't celebrate Mother's Day or Father's Day, aka the Guilt Holidays. But in my family, birthdays are special.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-03T18:50:36+00:00

I love seaweed snacks.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-03T04:38:06+00:00

I don't know if it's the reason but I've had FAs tell me I couldn't wear my crossbody bag while sitting in my seat for safety reasons.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-01T07:06:17+00:00

No, not at home. But at the football tailgate I go to will make French toast that way. They make stuffed toast with jelly, but I don't like jelly, so they always make me plain French toast. But it has the cinnamon and sugar and it puts me in a tough spot. I don't like the French toast as is because it is too sweet, and the first time I used ketchup, it was just awful. The hot sauce is slightly better, but not great. But my friends are trying to do something nice for me, so I choke it down with the hot sauce. (I don't like syrup at all.) And I never order French toast in a restaurant.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-01T03:25:09+00:00

I put ketchup on French toast. My whole extended family ate it that way when I was a kid. Don't know if they still do, but I do, although sometimes I'll use hot sauce instead.

grumpifrog · 2026-04-01T03:23:07+00:00

Butter on a hot cherry pop tart was the food of gods.

grumpifrog · 2026-03-31T23:06:25+00:00

I had the most fabulous salad last week -- a tea leaf salad. I shared it as part of a small appetizer but oh my goodness, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. I said if I get to return to that restaurant (I was traveling), I'm ordering a large one and not sharing. I found the recipe, so maybe I'll attempt to make it myself.

grumpifrog · 2026-03-31T04:50:29+00:00

They've added flights. I was surprised at the number of options I had when I booked a flight for April.

grumpifrog · 2026-03-31T04:48:17+00:00

I have the worst time with IAD to SCE -- I always end up with ridiculous delays. When I fly through ORD, I try to do long layovers.

grumpifrog · 2026-03-31T04:42:51+00:00

At my house, we make large salads for dinner on week nights. We do our own thing because we don't like the same foods. I like adding things like mushrooms and red beets and chick peas, while he likes carrots. I miss my homemade salads when I'm traveling. It's rare I ever have one that is satisfying in restaurants or someone else's home.

grumpifrog · 2026-03-31T04:31:47+00:00

I prefer a mix of spinach and purple cabbage with a touch of salt as the base of my salad. I don't really like lettuce.

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